We started the day with breakfast – Nutella, pancakes and mini doughnuts made their way onto my plate. I noticed that the breakfast buffet had a half-empty bottle of champagne with 6 flutes beside it. I was baffled, though The Husband wasn’t – this is Germany, after all.
We headed out at 10am. Destination: Hackescher Markt station. Here we would meet up with our guide, Jonathan (the tour company boasts on their website that they were the first to offer English tours of the city). Jonathan announced that it was his birthday and received well wishes. Then he remarked that we Sydney-siders would be cold, but there I was, the only person stripped down to my shirt – we told him that Finland had been colder.
Jonathan took us to a nearby park and gave us a rundown on Berlin’s history. I had vaguely heard of these things over the years in school. Suddenly, however, Prussia made sense; suddenly I understood the background of The Living Daylights; suddenly it all felt very real instead of facts on a page.
Cooler than it looks ;)
Berlin is no longer divided, but the city is still shaped by its past. The famous TV Tower was built during the Cold War by East Berlin and Jonathan says it was as much an antenna as it was a show of power, easily visible from West Berlin.
Buildings in Berlin vary greatly in style – elegant buildings from the 19th century, brutalist 1960s structures, cold Nazi buildings, modern glass works of art. It’s quite a mix.
Jonathan was very friendly and genuinely nice. He took us over a bridge to Museum Island, which is crammed with museums and stonework studded with bullet holes from WWII. They kept the holes as a reminder – much is kept in Berlin from that era for the same reason.
History must not be allowed to repeat itself.
Riddled with history
After pointing out the apartment belonging to Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany and “the most powerful woman in the world”), Jonathan led us to a courtyard where we had a great view of the TV Tower and Berlin Cathedral, which is built in the Catholic style despite servicing Protestant worshippers. Some ruler or another decided that they wanted it to resemble St Peter’s Basilica, so the old cathedral was razed to make way for something new.
We stopped by Neue Wache, a memorial dedicated to victims of war (well…now, at least – who it’s dedicated to has changed depending on propaganda). It is currently fenced off so an entry ramp can be built. Inside is a statue of a mother cradling her dead son. It’s moving, though I had to peer at it through bars.
Quite a lot of Berlin seems to be under construction or having a facelift at. the moment. It detracts from the experience, but not by much.
Jonathan showed us an elite university where only your marks will get you in. It’s only 300 euro a year to attend! I wish we had something like that (paying admin fees only) in Australia, because I would have done the correct degree to start with.
We explored the exteriors of some nice buildings and then admired a memorial to the book burning that occurred on May 10, 1933. It’s located in Babelplatz, outside a university, and has the rather evocative title of “The Empty Library”. The memorial is marked by a window in the ground which allows you to look into an inaccessible room below that holds empty shelves, supposedly enough to hold all the books that were burned.
This made quite the impact on us. To be able to see what was lost…
We then made our way to Gendermenmarkt, which was a lovely square – from what we could see of it. We couldn’t enter it as emergency services and cameras were milling about. We discovered later that they were filming a German action movie there.
Onto Checkpoint Charlie! Except it was flooded with tourists. We hung back during our tour “break”, using the WC (and paying 50 cents for the privilege – I went in twice, but the attendant let me in for free the second time, presumably because he felt bad for me and my tiny bladder).
A photos sans tourists!
Jonathan returned after 20 minutes and told us that Checkpoint Charlie would have stretched quite a bit further down, not just this small section. It once fed into the US sector in West Berlin, so we were amused to see American fast-food joints on that side of the road.
Jonathan pointed out some colourful pipes, saying they were laid down to aid the removal of groundwater from construction sites, since Berlin is atop a swamp, and then painted to look pretty – pink, purple, yellow and so on.
Next we visited a remaining section of the infamous Berlin Wall. It looked thin and small, almost insignificant, and appeared quite dirty. People took selfies, smiled, crowding their way along the wall, which was quite at odds with the past – for we were in No Man’s Land.
The Husband had observed that the wall looked easy to climb. But Jonathan showed us a diagram of what lay in No Man’s Land: spikes, barbed wire and watch towers. All so that East Berliners did not leave for greener pastures in the West. No one likes to lose the key workers that can hold up their economy, after all.
The wall was completely dwarfed by a massive Nazi-era building across the road. My God, it was the coldest, most depressing structure I’ve ever seen in my life. I half expected Indiana Jones to sneak out one of the doors. This is the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus (Detlev Rohwedder House), built in the 1930s when it became its life as the House of Ministries. It now houses the German Finance Ministry, having escaped damage in WWII. Jonathan says its continued use is due to Germany’s “don’t forget the past” mindset.
He then showed us a mural on the building, completed in the 1950s to show an ideal socialist depiction of life, but it was here that an uprising took place in 1953. Now a photo from that day runs in front of the mural, blown up to match its length – this is supposed to show the socialist reality.
What a behemoth of a building, with so much history beneath its large shadow.
Well, I'm intimidated
Jonathan took us to where Hitler’s bunker had been in 1945. Hitler had holed up there, waiting for the end, marrying Eva Braun before both of them took cyanide. His body was dragged out and set alight. Here, in what is now a carpark in a residential area (no glorifying this spot, thanks), he died. His jawbone was taken to verify his identity.
Jonathan was adamant that Hitler definitely did die then and there, conspiracy theorists be damned. A nearby Modern History teacher from Australia (we are everywhere!) stopped Jonathan to ask about the tour and then pointed out the corner where Hitler’s body was hung.
The Soviets destroyed the bunker, as well as other landmarks of Nazi Germany. I think this was a very good idea.
It was fitting that our next stop was the Holocaust Memorial, where you are not allowed to smoke or stand on any of the stone slabs. This memorial reminded me of a cemetery – all those stones. They were uneven, stoic grey and grew in height as we descended into the memorial, until they towered over us. Anonymous, insurmountable, mournful witnesses.
They made me think of the stolen and destroyed tombstones in Jewish cemeteries during the Nazi era. Names of the dead – lost. The dead – so numerous that there were not enough gravestones.
The Husband’s interpretation of the memorial was a bit different. He saw the stones as obstacles to the Jewish people. The stones grew in height and number until they could no longer be overcome. Obstacles that dominated and destroyed lives.
We emerged from that city of stones, a little unsettled.
Thought-provoking and eerie
Jonathan said that there is no one interpretation of the memorial. As we walked away, it was impossible not to stand on the stones that were only squares set into the pavement.
At last, at long last, we were at Brandenburg Gate. An awing sight! Once, armies marched through it – Napoleon, then Hitler. Well, why not? It’s a pretty impressive gate!
Bricks marked out a line nearby in the road, showing us where the wall had been. The gate lay alone and unused during the Cold War era, directly in No Man’s Land.
A popular destination – the Starbucks has a massive queue!
Jonathan bade us farewell. We tipped him – it was his birthday, after all, and he was superb!
The Husband and I enjoyed bagels, then went back to the hotel rest. I accidentally ended up napping, though this didn’t cause us to be late to the TV Tower. It looks like a shiny disco ball on a stick!
The view from below!
Security demanded we keep our jackets on, which was weird. And then said jackets had to be hung up in a public (very public) coatroom while we were in the restaurant a whole floor above it – anxiety alert, right? Oddly, I was okay.
Well, I did have a cup of tea. Maybe that’s what made me so calm.
Dinner was nice, if pricey. We had the best views in Berlin – a 360-degree cityscape was spread before us as the restaurant gently rotated its way around the tower. One side of the city was particularly nice to look at (or maybe I just have a soft spot for Brandenburg Gate!). I left the GoPro running, so I’m excited to see the footage later.
We ate, left, found the gift shop and bought wares. Much fun! Then back to hotel. Oh, we also popped out briefly to a supermarket.
